I don’t know whether it’s the promise of Spring, but I have been back on the interiors bandwagon the last couple of weeks, much to Mr E’s amusement/fear. I absolutely love decorating or styling our little home and I am always on the lookout for the next project I can be doing. Last year was a big one for us in terms of projects- we completely gutted and changed our bathroom, replastered and decorated our living room and also gave our bedroom a little spruce over.

There are exciting projects imminent for us- we are just waiting on a couple more bits and pieces and then we are going to be putting Mads and LL into a joint bedroom, with Mads current room becoming our new study. As I work from home and have been for a year now, I just feel I need an extra space to escape to if I need to get on with work- Mr E often lets me do work on a Saturday afternoon if we aren’t already busy, but at the moment I have to either sit on our bed (not good for my back!) or go to a local hotel- neither are ideal, and so I am excited to have a little work space for us both.

But in the meantime I decided to give our downstairs hallway a little bit of a makeover. It’s a very small, non descript, pretty bland area and as such I have never really bothered with it before now. But as it is the first place people walk into as they come into our home, I was racking my brains to find ways to make it look a bit more welcoming.

I absolutely love instagram for finding creative people and inspiration. I found an illustrator on there Cheryl Rawlings and I immediately decided that her prints would be perfect for our mini hallway makeover so I got in touch with her to see if she would make me some custom ones. Way back before Christmas she made me six custom prints which all mean something special to us- I love that they are unique to us and that no one else has them and I spent ages deciding what quotes to use…

Because the hallway is so small we decided to fill up the whole of one wall with pictures. Our frames are the trusty Ribba ones from Ikea– we now have four photo walls in our house and every frame is a Ribba one but in different colours- I just really like the style. It’s hard to pick up on camera but these are a grey colour which I really like as I thought black might have been a bit harsh.

The first quote I decided on was actually one I made up myself! I love my instagram, blog, facebook and pinterest profile- it quite simply is ‘Our life is ordinary, but it’s the ordinary moments that are sometimes the sweetest.’ Obviously this is something I am quite passionate about (hence my Ordinary Moments project) so I like that I have my own quote on the wall.

The ‘You are the Best Adventure’ quote is one that I really love- we are a family who love to travel so I asked for Cheryl to draw a globe- plus my girls really are by far the biggest and most exciting adventure we have ever had. The bottom quote is the only one we had that wasn’t something custom made- I had seen this one and just liked it and thought it was cute as strangely Jelly Babies are quite a big part of our family- every time we go on a long journey our tradition is to have a pack of jelly babies to share!

This quote is actually a song lyric so I asked for little musical notes on it- it’s a song that means a lot to me because there’s quite a surreal story behind it- it was the song that was playing when Mads was born.

The final two prints are on the other side of the door. I have always loved the rainbow quote and I also love the quote ‘You made our House a Home.’ I also asked for our initials to be put in hearts in the little house.

I found this multi coloured stripy doormat in Oliver Bonas and I just had to get it.

Modelling the new space. I also got a industrial style white pendant lamp but I managed to cut it out the photo. 😉

Overall I am really pleased with our mini makeover- it’s not the most exciting of spaces which is why I haven’t really done anything with it until now, but now at least it has a bit more going on than it did before. Plus it has satisfied my interior urge until we do our girls bedroom and study in a couple of months time!

I love your hallway. I’ve noticed your home is predominately white, which is how we have ours. I like to think of the walls as a blank canvas for our photos/prints/etc. what I think maybe our hallway needs though is a jazzy mat like yours. Ours is mega neutral and we are currently using a jute runner from Matalan that we got to put the pushchair on when it has been raining. It does the job but it’s a bit plain (this is it here, if you are interested http://bettyandthebumps.com/2015/02/16/home-sweet-home-hall-stairs-and-landing/). xx

Oh I think it looks great, and it’s so lovely to have your ordinary moments quote there too. It must be the hint of Spring in the air; we’ve started a little kitchen makeover and I’ve spent this weekend perking up the bathroom grouting!

What a lovely makeover Katie, those prints are so lovely and unique and I love that doormat, so much in fact that I think we are going to have to copy you and get one, lovely bright colours to welcome people into your home! Xx

A lovely update for your hall, I think Spring makes you want to change things up a little bit, fresh start and all that! The prints are gorgeous.
Mads was born to a lovely song, my little boy was born to Earthquake by Labrinth! xx

Ahh Katie these are absolutely beautiful. I love them and having meaningful amazing quotes on the wall specially designed for you is just awesome! I love all these and the creativity behind them. They are amazing. Thanks for hosting darling.

Oh I absolutely love those prints. It’s amazing what a difference a few pictures can make. I find instagram and pinterest to be a pleasure and a pain since I want to keep redecorating as soon as I see new ideas! xxx

Nice one! I do like the way the quotes are done in a matching style, but still be original to you. We’ve got some interior decoration coming soon too, so will have to trawl through your interior posts soon to get some inspiration! 🙂

Love the prints and it’s so sweet that they are special to you and really mean something. I used to have the rainbow one in my room when I was a teenager and keep meaning to get it in our house. Looks lovely. There is always something quite satisfying about doing those little bits like getting things on the wall, something we keep putting off! xx

I always feel like hallways are such an awkward place to style! I am loving this gorgeous prints and how meaningful and precious each one is! Would love to see the lamp! I love industrial at the mo. Lovely snap of LL. What a beauty! xx

I love the prints and the black and white looks lovely. I like the idea of having something personal to you as soon as you come into the house, I noticed our stair carpet is going bald, so decorating our hall is now on the to-do list! x

I adore your prints, Katie. They sum you and your family up perfectly. No wonder you’re so happy with them. Ooo, and …. we’re going to be doing the same with our boys later this year too. They’ve asked to share a bedroom. We’re probably going to put it off until the end of the year though as the littlest loves his cot and we want to wait until he’s in a toddler bed. They’re actually moving in to the room that we currently use as the office so the office will be moving in to another room. All systems go!!